


Talking is painful

by orphan_account



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, M/M, Mild Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 03:18:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1289158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuck Hansen has yet to tell his father about his relationship with Raleigh Becket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Talking is painful

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Cotton Candy Bingo Round Two in response to the prompt: _Where we don't have to hide_.

Waking up next to someone he has feelings for isn't something Chuck is accustomed to. Of course, as a worldwide-known Jaeger pilot, he's already had his fair share of flings and one night stands, but he never stayed in his occasional partners' beds long enough to witness the sunrise or share breakfast with them.

He feels oddly lucky to be able to stare at the thin red scars marring the upper arm whose owner is loosely clutching his pillow with, nose buried in its soft fabric and snoring slightly. Turns out Raleigh Becket is a heavy sleeper when there's no alarm expected to ring on at the most ungodly hours of the night. Chuck suppresses a snort, then reaches for his lover's side, traces random patterns on his ribcage with his fingertips. Always feeling bold and teasing, he dips lower, pushes the sheets away, marvels at the expanse of hard muscles and pale skin. He feels the urge to taste it again, and closes his eyes. His hand remembers the caresses it provided a few hours ago. Sliding further downwards, he grabs a handful of Raleigh's curvy ass and squeezes softly, eliciting a sleepy moan from the older man. Chuck wonders if he's still loose and slick, if he could get inside him and wake him up nicely...

A loud bang at the door makes his heart skip several beats. He sits up as though struck by lightning, while Raleigh lets out a groan but ‒ the bastard ‒ doesn't move otherwise.

"Chuck! It's 6am already," his father's voice says through the closed door. "Max needs his morning walk."

"Fuck," Chuck hisses. "Rals, wake up, my dad's here."

Something he doesn't even care to sort out escapes the blonde's lips. Damn it to hell, Raleigh isn't going to get up on his own, and Herc is sure to enter his son's room as though he owns the place, and the old man doesn't know yet that Chuck hasn't been sleeping alone for the last couple of months...

He gives Raleigh a quick, hard push and the ex-pilot barely has the time to fully come back to consciousness before he falls out of the mattress and crashes on the floor with a loud thump, just between the bunk and the wall.

There isn't any time left to rearrange the sheets to cover himself, when Herc opens the door and enters the tiny room.

"Still in bed?" The older Hansen asks with a quizzical smile. "You're slackening, kiddo."

Chuck is glad that his dad doesn't bother inquiring about his half-hard cock, which he promptly hides under the covers.

"Why, are there some Kaijus around here waiting for their asses to get kicked?" he drawls nonchalantly.

"Nah, just your dog needing to pee."

"Oh, so when he has inconvenient needs he's my dog, but when he has no other desire than to cuddle and nap, he's yours?"

"Yep."

Herc's grin is very unnerving.

"Up and dress, Chuck. It's not because there's no war that you are allowed to get lazy."

His father has the decency to leave before Chuck gets up, fully naked and not aroused anymore. Not with Max waggling his short tail and looking up at him with an eager gleam in his eyes.

"Next time, warn me instead of throwing me out of the bed. Ow."

Raleigh's tousled hair appears above the opposite side of the bed. He touches the bump on his forehead with careful fingers while Chuck puts on his clothes and ties up his boot laces. He knows he's being childish, but he can't help ignoring Raleigh's complaints, because he's very well aware of what will go next.

"Maybe if you told your dad about us..."

"No, no way. He's not ready."

"Have you even tried to talk to him about..."

"About what? My sexuality? My _feelings_?" He spats more harshly than he intended to. "Those are not his business, anyway."

"It'll be when I ask him to take you to the U.S. with me," Raleigh replies with a smile far too serene for Chuck's sanity.

"You... What? Why?"

The younger man looks up at the blonde at last, taking in his undressed state and the ugly purple bruise blossoming on his forehead. If he feels guilty, he's careful not to show it on his scowling face.

"Why? Why would I go to the States with you?" he repeats.

Raleigh is still smiling, and purposely bends over to take his pants and sweater ‒ a truly amazing sight, Chuck's treacherous mind whispers before going blank.

"I thought it'd be nice to do some road trip together before... settling in?" The ex-pilot explains with a careful tone.

Road trip. Together. Settling in. Chuck's mind registers Raleigh's words without acknowledging them.

They've never really talked about what's been happening between them. After they closed the Breach, it took almost three days for the retrieval team to find Chuck's and Pentecost's escape pods, and weeks of painful medical treatment to put them both on their feet again. Chuck will be limping for a while, and the Marshal... Against all odds, his cancer seems to be less aggressive, but still there, lurking in the shadows inside his body. Doctors agreed to give him a year or two, and the man just looks like he's being given a gift. Chuck doesn't think even Mori understands him anymore. Not without the Drift.

Then there's been Becket, paying him a daily visit without missing a day, sneakily treating him with candies and junk food as though he were a kid (although he secretly felt grateful, for the hospital meals were the most horrendous ones he ever had to eat.) At first they didn't know what to tell to each other, dancing awkwardly around each other and brushing aside the subject that really mattered, not until Mori's intervention and her "For my own sanity, kiss already and be done with it." Mori is a kind girl, and Chuck's known her since their days together at the Academy; she can be brutally honest and insensitive when one dares make her lose her patience. And she's been aware of Chuck's interest in the blond pilot for years now.

So they kissed. And made out. Had wonderful, steamy sex too. Haven't gone on a real date yet, though. And never stated that they've been in a serious relationship for the last two months.

Chuck scratches his head gingerly. He doesn't know what to say, and Raleigh comes to sit next to him on the bed. Across the room, Max stares at them with disapproval clearly written on his wrinkled face.

Raleigh's hand grips his shoulder, starts stroking it slowly.

"Hey, you okay?" The older man asks in a gentle voice. "You'd rather we go to Australia first?"

He shakes his head.

"No. I... That's what we're gonna do?" He mumbles, mostly confused by the turn of their conversation.

"Do what?" Raleigh's smile grows wider. "You mean live together?"

"I guess."

A sigh escapes his lips. He's never thought he'd live through the closing of the Breach. He'd been supposed to die a hero, had let the thought sink deeply into his heart. Couldn't imagine life without Jaegers nor Kaijus, if he was honest with himself. What is he supposed to do now? Accept Raleigh's offer? Live a normal life with the man he fucks almost every night?

Okay, scratch that, because that makes him sound like an insensitive dickhead.

"You want us to be a couple," he says, looking at the blonde in the eye.

"Aren't we already a couple?"

"I... suppose," Chuck admits reluctantly.

A bright, amused laugh rings through the room. Raleigh's arm swoops around his shoulders.

"Oh my God, Charles, don't be such an idiot! Most of the people in the Shatterdome already know what goes on between us. Mako knows..."

"Because you told her!" He protests indignantly.

"Tendo knows too, and of course the doctors know."

"If you hadn't had that brilliant idea of hiding ourselves in their lab closet..."

"It was fun, don't deny it." Raleigh's other hand flutters above Chuck's thigh before settling there, giving it a playful squeeze. "Geizler's face was priceless."

"I thought Hermann was gonna kill us for contaminating his working space."

"He would have if his fellow lab partner hadn't restrained him," Raleigh recalls with a fond expression.

Only a groan answers him. His lover is still petting his leg, as though he were trying to tame a wild beast or calm down a frightened, cornered hind.

"You shouldn't be scared of what your father would think of you if you told him," he insists one more time.

That makes Chuck bristle.

"I'm not fucking scared! And I don't care about what he thinks. Much."

"Then what?"

"I dunno."

Taking a deep breath, Chuck grabs Raleigh's hand and makes it stop its stroking.

"I don't want him to look at me differently."

"Chuck..."

"Now that we won't drift together ever again... There'll always be something missing between me and him."

"I know."

"There never was any secret between us. And we didn't need to... talk about stuff."

"I know, Chuck. And I also can assure you that he'll never think any less of you because you kept our relationship from him."

"Talking with my dad can be painful."

This time, Raleigh forces him to turn his head towards him and kisses him. An all too sweet kiss, but strangely, Chuck is okay with it.

"You're not alone in this, Chuck. I'm very willing to help you."

Chuck feels himself giving up with a shaky laugh. He falls back onto his bed, making Raleigh follow him, and becoming aware of the blonde's nakedness again.

"You're such an asshole, Becket."

"But you like it when I am an asshole," Raleigh replies too innocently.

"Yeah, I like it very much. Still... I wish our lives weren't so complicated. I wish we lived in a place where we wouldn't have to care about dads and not drifting anymore and... and not hiding stuff to people who matter."

"Sweet Jesus, Hansen. Sounds like you're finally growing out of your stupidity."

"Shut up, I was saying something very meaningful!"

"Yeah, you were. And it's still time to make things right with these... important people."

"Whatever."

He can't help the tiny smile which threatens to fully bloom on his lips. Raleigh then raises up. His body, scarred and beautiful, straddles Chuck's hips.

"Now that we've been sentimental and all, will you fuck me, please?"

Chuck almost gives in. Almost.

"Not in front of the dog!"

¤¤¤

"I wish things were easier with Chuck. I wish we lived in a simpler world, where we wouldn't have to hide everything that matters from people we love."

"You've always been the more sentimental one, Herc."

"Well, don't you agree?" Herc asks impatiently. "That stupid son of mine surely thinks I will cut his head off because he's gotten himself a boyfriend!"

"Why don't you tell him?"

"Because I'd have to tell him about us too!" he exclaims.

Stacker shrugs nonchalantly without looking up from his reports.

"Do you want me to take care of it, then?"

"As tempting as it sounds... Nah, I'm the father here, so I guess I'll have to make him tell me about the Becket boy."

"Sounds fun."

"You can't even begin to imagine how _fun_ it'll be," Herc sighs. "Talking to Chuck can be really painful."

~ Finis ~


End file.
